Jordan had thought long and hard about how to ensure that Armiger would listen to others' wishes if he really did remake the world. If the general wanted to pave over Ventus, Jordan had hoped to oppose him, however slightly, with the only weapon he had: control of the Titans' Gates.

"First password," he said, "is: Emmy."

Passwords, Ka had told him, were a different kind of safeguard than the coded protocols the Winds used for the messages they passed. Codes could be broken; an unknown password must be guessed at.

Days ago, Jordan had asked Mediation to create passworded access to the entire mechanism of the Titans' Gates. As far as Mediation was concerned, Jordan was a Wind: it had complied.

"Control is yours," said the voice of the Titan's Gates.

"Second password is: Steam Car."

"The locks are ready for command."

"Third password—"

"Who is that?" It was the voice of 3340. "Relinquish control to me, now!"

Jordan smiled, and with great relish said, "No.

"Third password is: They are lost."

3340 had learned to intercept and mimic the command language of the Winds. It was as if it had forged keys to all the strongholds of Ventus. But while a key can be duplicated, a password must be learned or guessed. Against the controls Jordan had given himself, 3340 could do nothing. While Mediation treated Jordan like an equal, he had been able to command some systems deep in the mountain to tune to a single signal source once the first password was given. Now, regardless of what authorization they received, they would only obey commands from Jordan's location.

"Who are you?" asked 3340. The tone of its voice had changed, from imperious to solicitous. "You are clever. We can work together, you and I."

"Flood the valley," Jordan told the Gates.

"No! Listen, you'll never believe what I can do for you. Here's the best of all reasons why you should—"

Jordan opened his eyes and turned to look out over the parapet. If he hadn't known to feel for it, he might have missed the faint vibration that began to sing through the stone under his feet.

There were emergency floodgates to drain the desalination stacks in case of an emergency. Jordan had opened these, and now a white wall raced across the valley, engulfing everything under it.

Jordan stood at the parapet and watched it roll. The others stood nearby, all silent. Axel was open-mouthed, Tamsin grimly satisfied.

He didn't at first notice that Armiger had moved, and was now standing next to him.

The red-hot thing far down the valley had plenty of time to see the water coming, but it had not yet built any mobile elements. Jordan watched bright lances of light flick out of it, felling trees in a vain attempt to divert the onrushing water. The crest of the wave rising against it was festooned with entire trees as well as boulders big as a house. The roar was bone-rattling even at this height.

"Die," Jordan mouthed, or was it Armiger? He watched without emotion as an unstoppable hammer of water and tree trunks hit the red flower. 3340 was instantly engulfed. The water rushed on heedlessly.

Jordan heard the gods's voice in his mind for a few more seconds—a jumbled confusion of pleas and threats. Then came inner silence, even as the majestic sound of the deluge hit the farthest peaks and came echoing back.

The roaring and surging echoes continued; directly below this parapet, huge mouths continued to empty white arcs into the valley. To Jordan, though, things remained silent for a long moment until, like crickets and frogs resuming their monologues after some night beast has slouched by, the voices of the mecha and minor Winds returned here, there, and gradually throughout the mountains and valley.

Jordan turned his attention to the raging flood below. "Do not drown the humans at the mouth of the valley," he commanded it. "But travel where you must and churn until you have found every speck that once made up 3340's body, and reduce it to nothing."

The water was full of mecha, and the shattered trees and the stones. It all now combined, as mecha would, to define itself as a single entity: the flood. This entity heard Jordan's instruction, and began to act on it.

The valves in the mountainside slowly shut, leaving a hazy jumble of white water below. Steam began to rise from this, and soon the valley disappeared beneath a blanket of cloud.

Jordan felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked around.

Armiger was smiling at him.

Calandria emerged from the mountain to find a landscape adrift with smoke and steam, dotted here and there with men just now rising from their hiding places. The sky was striated with the aurora of the Diadem swans, but the vagabond moons she had become so familiar with were missing. She had heard the screams of 3340 in her mind, and had tripped and fallen in her confusion. She no longer heard Him, but His voice might return any second, and if she even thought about that possibility she panicked. There was only one course of action left to her; she prayed it wasn't too late.

She bounded down the slope, shoulder and flank aching from injuries new and old. The abomination had to be here somewhere—the plateau was packed with armed men, though they looked totally cowed at the moment.

When she spotted Armiger standing with Axel and the others near a cliff, Calandria bared her fangs and ran straight at him.

"Thank you," Armiger said to Jordan. "I don't know how you did that, or even if you know what you've done—"

"I know," said Jordan. "And you're welcome." He grinned, feeling a swelling pride he'd never thought he would ever feel. Looking up, however, he could see that the swans were returning to their places in the sky. Things were not over yet.

"You didn't intend for that to happen, did you?" he asked Armiger. The general shook his head.

"It was what I came here to do. But as I lived here, I... came to myself. I no longer wanted what He wanted."

Jordan nodded. "That leaves us with a question, then: what is it that you do want?"

Armiger stared out over the ruined valley for a long time. Finally his shoulders slumped, and he said, "I don't know anymore."

"That's all right," said Jordan. "I have an idea."

"Down!" shouted Axel as something white dove at them. There was a brilliant flash and something heavy slammed into Jordan and knocked him against the parapet. He fell, for an instant certain that he had gone over the edge; but no, he landed on solid stone and heard the sounds of a scuffle directly over his head.

He blinked at the spots in front of his eyes and stood up. The smell of burned hair was in his nose.

Armiger stood several steps away. One sleeve of his shirt had been ripped away, as well as the skin on his shoulder. What was revealed underneath was not flesh, but bright veined metal.

Axel leaned way out over the parapet. He held his laser pistol in one hand.

Jordan turned and looked over the edge. Two meters down a bast was clinging by its claws to the steepening slope. A burn mark on its back was smoking.

"Take my hand," said Axel. He reached down. "You don't have to die."

"Don't risk yourself. They won't let me die," said the bast. The sound of its voice shocked Jordan to stillness. "Axel, don't let it win."

Axel's outstretched hand wavered. "Who are you?"

"Axel!" The bast slipped, caught itself then started to slide. "Axel—who is that woman who looks like me?"

Then it lost its grip, and plummeted silently into the cloud bank below.

Axel climbed down. For a while he just stood there, looking down at the stone under his feet. The others were silent too. Behind them all, Jordan could see a black-robed woman walking in their direction: Galas. A large crowd of men followed her quietly.